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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:44:30 -0700
From: Yan Zhai <yan@cloudflare.com>
To: netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>,
	Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli.us>, Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>,
	Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>,
	Lorenzo Bianconi <lorenzo@kernel.org>,
	Coco Li <lixiaoyan@google.com>, Wei Wang <weiwan@google.com>,
	Alexander Duyck <alexanderduyck@fb.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, rcu@vger.kernel.org,
	bpf@vger.kernel.org, kernel-team@cloudflare.com,
	Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org>,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
	Toke =?utf-8?Q?H=C3=B8iland-J=C3=B8rgensen?= <toke@redhat.com>,
	Alexei Starovoitov <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>, mark.rutland@arm.com,
	Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@kernel.org>,
	Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
Subject: [PATCH v5 net 0/3] Report RCU QS for busy network kthreads
Message-ID: <cover.1710877680.git.yan@cloudflare.com>
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This changeset fixes a common problem for busy networking kthreads.
These threads, e.g. NAPI threads, typically will do:

* polling a batch of packets
* if there are more work, call cond_resched() to allow scheduling
* continue to poll more packets when rx queue is not empty

We observed this being a problem in production, since it can block RCU
tasks from making progress under heavy load. Investigation indicates
that just calling cond_resched() is insufficient for RCU tasks to reach
quiescent states. This also has the side effect of frequently clearing
the TIF_NEED_RESCHED flag on voluntary preempt kernels. As a result,
schedule() will not be called in these circumstances, despite schedule()
in fact provides required quiescent states. This at least affects NAPI
threads, napi_busy_loop, and also cpumap kthread.

By reporting RCU QSes in these kthreads periodically before cond_resched, the
blocked RCU waiters can correctly progress. Instead of just reporting QS for
RCU tasks, these code share the same concern as noted in the commit
d28139c4e967 ("rcu: Apply RCU-bh QSes to RCU-sched and RCU-preempt when safe").
So report a consolidated QS for safety.

It is worth noting that, although this problem is reproducible in
napi_busy_loop, it only shows up when setting the polling interval to as high
as 2ms, which is far larger than recommended 50us-100us in the documentation.
So napi_busy_loop is left untouched.

Lastly, this does not affect RT kernels, which does not enter the scheduler
through cond_resched(). Without the mentioned side effect, schedule() will
be called time by time, and clear the RCU task holdouts.

V4: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/cover.1710525524.git.yan@cloudflare.com/
V3: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240314145459.7b3aedf1@kernel.org/t/
V2: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/ZeFPz4D121TgvCje@debian.debian/
V1: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/Zd4DXTyCf17lcTfq@debian.debian/#t

changes since v4:
 * polished comments and docs for the RCU helper as Paul McKenney suggested

changes since v3:
 * fixed kernel-doc errors

changes since v2:
 * created a helper in rcu header to abstract the behavior
 * fixed cpumap kthread in addition

changes since v1:
 * disable preemption first as Paul McKenney suggested

Yan Zhai (3):
  rcu: add a helper to report consolidated flavor QS
  net: report RCU QS on threaded NAPI repolling
  bpf: report RCU QS in cpumap kthread

 include/linux/rcupdate.h | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 kernel/bpf/cpumap.c      |  3 +++
 net/core/dev.c           |  3 +++
 3 files changed, 37 insertions(+)

-- 
2.30.2